He got there early in the morning. My dad seems to think that the forks and axle are beyond repair. They'll go out this morning to look for parts. I'll update as needed but I don't want to hack his RR. Epic trip!

UHHH I dont put 4 stroke oil in a 2 stroke, sounded bad but I'm not quite that SLowww

I picked up an RMX to replace the XRL & hope a real trip is still possible with the RMX. Oil is my only concern , not a Vag about vibrators. just curious about oil.

& ubber thankful for such a great ride report . SWEET

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It's easier to find two stroke oil in Latin America than in the US as a LOT of the little motorcycles people use as daily transportation are two stroke. You can basically find it in (almost) every fuel station.

It's Wednesday morning 9AM and I'm still watching the world go by in Turbo waiting for a truck to take the Sherpa to Medellin. I'm getting very good at people watching. Along with improving my Spanish mechanical vocabulary.

Mis botellas de escopias se quebradas= my fork lowers are broken

mi eje es mierda= my axle is shit

¿Cuánto cuesta un frontal usado?= how much for a used front end?

I don't really care when I get to Medellin, so the truck will probably come shortly. If I really was pressed for time it would take two weeks. In Latin America there seems to be an inverse relationship on how long things take. It has to do with the square root of the time you have available divided by your expectations. I'm still working on the formula.

more later ..

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I love that. For a lifetime I have tried to use logic on human motives and events and developing axiomatic formulas. So far none has worked except one; the second you have it figured out, solidifying the concept in your mind somehow nullifies it!

It looks like things are working out favorably for John according to my dad. It seems he's already a pretty popular guy . I've been told he's preparing a status update that includes a funny story Colombian style.

Just a quick update. Left Turbo on a truck last night at 5 and drove through the night. Got to Medellin at 4AM after making stops. It was too late to deliver the bike over to the garage, so the truckdriver went to the main freight terminal and I slept on the cement next to the truck. At 7AM a Nissan Sentra arrived and the truck driver informed me he was unloading the Sherpa from the big truck and handing it off to the Sentra. I have pictures of the Sherpa stuffed in the trunk but am at Orlandos house and using his computer.

Trespalacios Dad is a great guy. He is a real go getter. Had the bike out of the Sentra and strung up inside with the front forks stripped off before too long. Rode around looking for used forks and finally found an old school mechanic who had fork tubes the same diameter and spacing as the Sherpa. Perfect fit. I could hardly believe it. This means I can re-use the Sherpa triple clamps on the new forks.

The old mechanics name is Eduardo and he had a 36 spoke hub that lines up with the Sherpa rim and a good used front rotor. So he is busy putting it all together so I can bolt the new front end on. Total cost for new forks, axle, brake rotor, and wheel re-lacing is 670,000 pesos. I think around 375.00 or so. I'm heading over tomorrow to watch him work.

So it doesn't take long to get things fixed in Medellin if you have something you need done. I will spend some time servicing the bike as well.

The admins removed the link. It is against ride report rules to have a link to a paypal account. Also asked me to stop thanking people publicly, so I'll send PMs from now on. And will have to stop giving reports of donations.

Them's the rules, and I will gladly abide by them now that I understand.

The guard dog didn't even get up to say goodbye as I left Turbo yesterday:

A lot of women are riding around on small step throughs like this little Suzuki:

Here the boys are in front of the guesthouse loading a tuk-tuk with padrillas (bricks):

I really like this Yamaha 250X outfitted with fat rims and 18" wheels front and rear. Those forks would look good on the Sherpa:

The feretarria next door loads up cement and rebar on a horse drawn flatbed for local deliveries. They just let the 20 foot lengths of rebar drag on the ground and everyone seems to avoid running over them:

I even saw a fellow on a scooter dragging three 20 foot lengths of pvc pipe down the street with his left hand while he steered with his right. A wouldn't like to be the plumber trying to put fittings on that pipe.

Here is the Sherpa being tied down in the delivery truck in Turbo:

and here is my ride:

The road started out as a nice paved two lane for the first 100 kilometers through banana plantations:

But it soon got dark and the road started to climb and deteriorate. Stopping for coffee and to pick up packages:

It was like a land version of the Kuna cargo boat, stopping to pick up and drop off stuff. Coconuts, boxes of this and that. Here I bought some pupusas from a one-eyed happy Colombiano:

We stopped in Antioquia to pick up the truck drivers novia (girlfriend) named Luz:

We dropped Luz off a 100 kilometers down the road. They were gone for a while so I can guess why he was smiling when he came back to the truck. The road turned to alternating pavement and gravel for long stretches with single lane traffic through landslides. Here we stopped to take a pic of a poisonous snake with his pencil head sticking up cobra style. Hard to see:

Got into Medellin at 4AM after an 11 hour ride. I slept by the truck until 7AM when this car showed up to deliver the Sherpa the last few kilometers to Orlando Trespalacios garage:

Here they are after stuffing the bike in the trunk. He roped it in and it didn't fall out in thick rush hour traffic. No need to worry if the front end sticking out to the left gets whacked. It's already toast:

Orlando is Trespalacio's Dad. What a great guy. I had a hard time keeping up with him today. Got the Sherpa out of the car and wheeled it into a covered area. Had to use a hammer to bend the axle enough to be able to unscrew it with a pipe wrench:

jacked up the bike and hung it from the rafters with a rope to start taking off the forks:

Here is Orlando:

and the Sherpa over in the corner after stripping off all the nasty bits:

Well okay, the bike is filthy and there are still some nasty bits I need to attend to. But for now the mission was to find a front end. Orlando hailed a cab and we hit the road looking for used parts. Here we are at a shop with the broken wheel and a bag of Sherpa hurt on the ground while Orlando is calling the next place:

after a couple stops we got to Eduardo's shop up on Avenida Buenaventura in the south hills:

Eduardo had a decent set of forks off a Suzuki trescientos setenta (370). Never heard of it. But it used a 21" front wheel and the Sherpa triples slid on the fork tubes like butter. Same exact spacing and 36mm fork tube diameter. Then Eduardo dug out a campaña (hub) that had the same 36 radios (spoke) pattern as the Sherpa. The guy has or can make everything to make a new Sherpa front end using the Sherpa triples, steering head bearings and dust seals, Suzuki fork tubes, new spokes, good used rotor off some kind of bike, Suzuki axle and front hub, Sherpa rim and tire, and Sherpa caliper and brake master cylinder. Using the Sherpa triples means all the gauges and lights will bolt back on the bracket holes. And the Sherpa front high fender will bolt back on the lower triple.

So by 1PM everything was set. Eduardo did a calculation of parts and labor and came up with 670,000 pesos or around 375 bucks. Probably less than shipping in used parts from the states and it will be ready in 2 days. I could never have done this by myself in 5 hours. Orlando is the man. He made it all happen. Three cheers for the Trespalacio family. We left all the Sherpa front end parts at Eduardo's shop and took the metro train home:

and went out for some lunch, stopped at a cajero automatic to withdraw some pesos to pay Eduardo before driving up in the hills so I could drop off some laundry and visit Señora Trespalacios and use their computer. I am now back down where I'll be staying in a spare room at the parking garage. Will go over to a local internet cafe and upload this now.

The admins removed the link. It is against ride report rules to have a link to a paypal account. Also asked me to stop thanking people publicly, so I'll send PMs from now on. And will have to stop giving reports of donations.

Them's the rules, and I will gladly abide by them now that I understand.

Kindest regards,
John Downs

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Hi John,

Thanks for the note and glad to read your bike will be repaired soon...

The admins removed the link. It is against ride report rules to have a link to a paypal account. Also asked me to stop thanking people publicly, so I'll send PMs from now on. And will have to stop giving reports of donations.

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You may consider to set up separate thread in 'Yo momma' section of the forum. There you can give details and deliver financial reports. And link it here without any specific caption (just for those that would like to know). You may ask admins if it would be OK...

Agreed. Sometimes I dislike all the added comments in RR's but for a real time report it's got to be comforting to know somebody is keeping an eye out.

As far as the stars I'd never investigated to see how those ratings were done. Now I know and I have voted!

John

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John D, this is where I am in your report, page 12. I haven't skipped ahead to see where you are now, but after running across this, I had to give you a shout out with a "Dios lo acompañe!" and kudos on a very entertaining and educational report. I, too, just rated a thread for the first time. I am very much enjoying the details you put into this, and I hope you are well where you are. I expect things to get even more interesting once you get out of the states. I'm trying to catch up without skipping ahead, let's see how well I can avoid the temptation...